Rats..

[Alty_Ram]

Anyone got any advice on rat issues ? Have seen one running across the garden today to steal fallen food under the bird table on also more than one occasion, but I also hear what sounded like scrabbling in the ceiling between ground floor and basement a few times in the last few months - usually in the evening. Have looked in all the cupboards of the room above the noise but can't see any damage or sign of them/it.

I'd happily be rid of them/it but don't want to just go buying rat poison and endanger any wildlife or anyone's pets including our own cat.

[Archied]

4 minutes ago, Alty_Ram said:

Anyone got any advice on rat issues ? Have seen one running across the garden today to steal fallen food under the bird table on also more than one occasion, but I also hear what sounded like scrabbling in the ceiling between ground floor and basement a few times in the last few months - usually in the evening. Have looked in all the cupboards of the room above the noise but can't see any damage or sign of them/it.

I'd happily be rid of them/it but don't want to just go buying rat poison and endanger any wildlife or anyone's pets including our own cat.

We recently had a problem with one under the kitchen units and going in the food bin overnight we have dogs so didn’t want to use poison and traps caught nothing , I removed the insulation material where I reckon it was nesting and we stopped putting food waste in the bin in the kitchen by buying a small food bin and emptied every evening , touch wood removing the food source and material it could nest in seems to have done the trick

[Mucker1884]

We had one(?) around our garden shed, (c. 6-7m from the house) also feasting on fallen bird food.

Job No 1 was to block it's path/effect a detour.  It doesn't necessarily need to be impenetrable.  They simply hate change apparently, so anything that may re-route them (to the neighbours!) helps.

Sadly our second job was to cease all bird feeding, so as to remove the temptation.

12 months have since passed.  No sighting and/or evidence of ratty returning.  🤞

[True Ram]

I think you can buy a plug in siren that sends out a high pitch sound that only the rodents can hear and keeps them away 

Good luck 

[Anag Ram]

Smack it with a spade.

[Alty_Ram]

1 hour ago, Archied said:

We recently had a problem with one under the kitchen units and going in the food bin overnight we have dogs so didn’t want to use poison and traps caught nothing , I removed the insulation material where I reckon it was nesting and we stopped putting food waste in the bin in the kitchen by buying a small food bin and emptied every evening , touch wood removing the food source and material it could nest in seems to have done the trick

Yeah, the noise seems to be in the kitchen floor but is very infrequent, so maybe it is a visitor ?  I can't for the life of me work out how it gets from there to the garden and back though (or even if it is the same one). There is no obvious hole and the rat I saw was a big unit so it's not going to be a tiny crack. I can't see anything damaged in the kitchen cupboards and bins so it could be behind the board at the bottom of the kitchen units. I'll try and pull them out. It's so difficult to know what's going on 😡

[Alty_Ram]

1 hour ago, Mucker1884 said:

We had one(?) around our garden shed, (c. 6-7m from the house) also feasting on fallen bird food.

Job No 1 was to block it's path/effect a detour.  It doesn't necessarily need to be impenetrable.  They simply hate change apparently, so anything that may re-route them (to the neighbours!) helps.

Sadly our second job was to cease all bird feeding, so as to remove the temptation.

12 months have since passed.  No sighting and/or evidence of ratty returning.  🤞

Had that same thought. I like our feathered visitors but don't want to be rat central. At last the birds would have plenty of other food options at this time of year. The bird food storage is in the shed and unaffected.

[Alty_Ram]

1 hour ago, True Ram said:

I think you can buy a plug in siren that sends out a high pitch sound that only the rodents can hear and keeps them away 

Good luck 

It's an interesting option but I had a look at those but as far as I can tell, they seem to affect a whole bunch of stuff, not just rats ? I read a review that said these things drive cats away and since we have one that'd obviously be a non-starter. Our neighbour also has a dog and they have super sensitive hearing so I don't want to stress the poor lad.

[Alty_Ram]

29 minutes ago, Anag Ram said:

Smack it with a spade.

It's too quick for that (for me at least!). It's like a flippin' ninja !

[Elwood P Dowd]

A rat trap baited with Peanut butter.

Buy a rat trap and put peanut butter on it but don’t set the trap, do this for a couple of days and on the 3rd day set the trap.

We had a rat that transited through our garden I did the above and on the 3rd day around 11am I heard the trap go off and the rat was no more.

 

[Wolfie20]

1 hour ago, Mucker1884 said:

 

12 months have since passed.  No sighting and/or evidence of ratty returning.  🤞

Just dozens of emaciated birds!

[maxjam]

We had rats fairly regularly in the garden under the chicken shed at our old house.  My wife insisted that we bought humane rat traps so we could drive to some fields in the middle of nowhere and release the rats.

Worked well until the 4th or 5th time when, as I was driving around a corner, the cage door popped open and I tried not to crash the car as the rat escaped 😛 

After that I just used rat poison.

TBF we had about 20 chickens and a couple of dogs, if you put the bait in proper rodent bait boxes you shouldn't have a problem.  As mentioned previously coat the poison in peanut butter and your problems will end pretty quickly. 

 

Edited May 28 by maxjam

[Mucker1884]

1 minute ago, Wolfie20 said:

Just dozens of emaciated birds!

Probably more like hundreds. 

Happy to take sole responsibility for it too, if it makes others feel better about themselves, and their own perfect approach to life.

🍻  

[Mucker1884]

@maxjam is an arse!

Edited May 28 by Mucker1884

[maxjam]

1 minute ago, Mucker1884 said:

Dunno what you're on about. 

That 'Edited just now by maxjam' was for a completely different typo.

[Mucker1884]

3 minutes ago, maxjam said:

Dunno what you're on about. 

That 'Edited just now by maxjam' was for a completely different typo.

Two way street mate.  Check out my own edit!   Ha!  

[FlyBritishMidland]

Ring the council, most will deal with pests.  We’ve had them in our garden, mainly passing through.  The council charged about £50 for 4 visits and they did go.  Sod’s Law, spotted another hole in the garden at the weekend so put a couple of blocks of rat poison down and capped the hole so the dogs can’t get to it.  No sign since 🤞.

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

56 minutes ago, Alty_Ram said:

Yeah, the noise seems to be in the kitchen floor but is very infrequent, so maybe it is a visitor ?  I can't for the life of me work out how it gets from there to the garden and back though (or even if it is the same one). There is no obvious hole and the rat I saw was a big unit so it's not going to be a tiny crack. I can't see anything damaged in the kitchen cupboards and bins so it could be behind the board at the bottom of the kitchen units. I'll try and pull them out. It's so difficult to know what's going on 😡

Many years ago as a student, I used to work with my Uncle changing blocked sewer pipes for Broxtowe Council and often the pipe had been damaged by tree roots leaving a nice big access hole for them to travel into a house.  I saw a lot of them.  You'll also find that the water inlet pipe- normally behind bottom boards of kitchens- comes into the property through a hole in the concrete that's often far too large for what's required, particularly 80's built house.  They can come in around that pipe quite commonly.  Another one could be a low lying entry point such round a tumble dryer extraction vent.  If you do find an entry point there will be no point using foam or such to keep em out.  They'll just eat and come back for more. 

[Gritstone Ram]

I think first of all you need to find where they are coming from. Do you live by a brook or river? If not then you may need to look at your drains for defects. Chambers with uncapped inlets are easy to spot also you may spot evidence in the chambers like droppings. If you suspect the drains I don’t think the council are much help, you may have to find a local pest control company. 
One way is to cut off their route into the property either sealing up holes etc. It could be trial and error but some pest control contractor might be best placed to advise.

Other methods are buy an air gun probably depending on the size of your garden and where your neighbours are positioned or use poison but again it might be better leaving that to an expert.

[richinspain]

2 hours ago, Anag Ram said:

Smack it with a spade.

We were chatting with our daughter in our bedroom one night when she saw a mouse run across the room and into her bedroom. They locked me in her room with a broom, whilst I thought "what the hell am I going to do with this?". Anyway, suddenly the mouse ran in front of me and quick as a flash I swung the broom like an axe hitting the mouse squarely in the back. I knew that binge watching Vikings would come in useful.